Guy Walters | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/profile/guy-walters
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A torch the Nazis lit | Guy Waltershttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/16/torch-nazis-lit-olympic-flame
The Olympic flame that reaches Britain on Friday was initially a way of glorifying Hitler's regime<p>Seventy-eight years ago this month, two elderly Germans found themselves on a train to Athens. As they watched the scenery chuff past, they discussed arrangements for what would be the biggest sporting festival the world had seen – the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The older man, Theodor Lewald, was president of the organising committee for the Games; his companion was Carl Diem, the committee's secretary-general, who had captained the German Olympic team at Stockholm in 1912.</p><p>While the two men headed south, Diem had a brainwave. Wouldn't it be a great idea, he suggested, if the Olympic flame were carried by a torch relay from Olympia all the way to Berlin? There could be no more vivid a way of linking the capital of the new German Reich with the original games of classical Greece, whose culture Hitler so admired. Lewald agreed, as did the International Olympic Committee members they were to meet in Athens.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/16/torch-nazis-lit-olympic-flame">Continue reading...</a>Olympic torchOlympic Games 2012GermanyEuropeWorld newsUK newsSportOlympicsWed, 16 May 2012 20:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/16/torch-nazis-lit-olympic-flameMilos Bicanski/Getty ImagesThe Olympic flame is passed between bearers of the London 2012 Olympic torch during the sixth day of the torch relay for the London Olympics. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty ImagesMilos Bicanski/Getty ImagesThe Olympic flame is passed between bearers of the London 2012 Olympic torch during the sixth day of the torch relay for the London Olympics. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty ImagesGuy Walters2012-05-16T20:30:00Z